Some helpful marketing definitions

Acquisition – The events or activities undertaken to obtain new customers.  Acquisition may be done periodically through specific marketing campaigns or on an ongoing basis.  The types or quality of new customers can have a significant and lasting effect on key performance indicators.

Activation Rate – Most typically used in the credit card industry to indicate the percentage of customers receiving a new credit card who actually activate the card.

CRM - Customer Relationship Management.  Refers to the methodologies, strategies, software, and Web-based capabilities that help an enterprise to organize and manage customer relationships. Companies utilize this approach to gain a better understanding of their customers’ wants and needs.

Cross-selling - The strategy of promoting additional products to current customers, often based on their past purchases. Cross-selling is designed to achieve incremental sales by deepening the customer's relationship with the company and decreasing the likelihood of the customer switching to a competitor.

Customer Churn – A term typically used in industries providing an ongoing service to customers (for example, wireless communications, credit card issuers, cable companies) to refer to the periodic loss of customers.  Businesses with high churn must continually acquire new customers in order to maintain their customer base.

Customer Segmentation – A marketing technique to divide a customer base into segments based on meaningful characteristics.  Customer segments may incorporate registration information, household demographics, purchase behavior, and various other attributes which define a dynamic group of customers or accounts. Customer segments serve as targets for advertising, promotions, and communications.

Fulfillment – Within the loyalty marketing and sales promotion industry, this refers to the processes associated with distributing requested rewards to customers.

Incentive Program - A program with items of perceived value added to an offer or sales goal to encourage specific response.  Can be targeted at consumers, but more typically refers to employee or sales force programs.

IVR - Interactive Voice Response.  A technology that automates interaction with telephone callers. Enterprises use IVR systems to reduce the cost of common sales, service, collections, inquiry and support calls to and from their company.

Loyalty Marketing - A multi-faceted marketing discipline whose purpose is to improve financial performance by increasing the lifetime value of a company’s customer base over the long term.

Loyalty Renovators – A division of Kobie Marketing, focused on helping companies build better loyalty programs.  To learn more, visit www.loyaltyrenovators.com.

Multi-channel implementation – Refers to marketing programs that are deployed using more than one media channel.  The primary media channels are:  television, radio, print, direct mail, and the Internet.

Product Trial - A consumer’s opportunity to test a product or service, usually without charge or with return privileges.

Repeat Purchasing – Customers who purchase from a retailer on more than one occasion, in contrast to those who are deemed “one-time purchasers.”

Retention - Refers to the ability of a company to retain as many of its customers as possible; for example, by reducing churn or increasing repeat purchasing.

Return on Investment – Commonly referred to as ROI.  The profit from an investment as a percentage of the amount invested.  In marketing programs, typically all of the costs associated with a specific marketing initiative are used as the base. The net profits associated with the program are then divided by the costs to determine the ROI.

Reward Sourcing - The activities associated with developing reliable sources of supply or vendors to provide the rewards in a loyalty or incentive program.  

Do you need a definition that isn't on the list?  Just send us an e-mail and we'll add it to the Glossary.